BOX SCORE

HOUSTON - Prairie View A&M dropped its second game in a row after early pitch location problems and errors against Houston Baptist put the Panthers out of the game in a 10-5 loss in Houston Wednesday afternoon.

The Panthers tried to make a comeback late, but surrendered a five-run eighth inning to crush any hopes of a rally.

“We had a poor start,” Prairie View A&M coach Waskyla Cullivan said. “I wanted to get one more chance to look at Cody Thompson. Then we had a bad eighth inning. It put us in a hole. Two big innings, the first and the eighth, got us in bad situations."

The Huskies capitalized off bad placement by Prairie View A&M starter Cody Thompson, who put four batters on in the first with base on balls. Thompson scored two runners with base on balls before being replaced by left-hander Clayton Orsak. Houston Baptist scored two more runs in the bottom of the first after right fielder Michael Long dropped a fly ball and was charged with the error after losing the ball in the glare of the sun.

The Panthers trailed 4-1 after the first inning. However, the Prairie View A&M bullpen went on to throw five consecutive scoreless innings on the way to mounting a comeback.

Andre Oliver hit a two-run double to the right-center field wall in the bottom of the sixth inning to swap places with Michael Long, cutting the Panthers deficit to 5-2. Then in the top of the eighth, Brad Benes followed up a Robert Cossey single with a double to put two runners in scoring position with two outs for Dominiq Harris, who doubled to center field for two RBIs, diminishing the Huskies lead to 5-4.  

In the bottom of the eighth, Prairie View A&M reliever Julio Baltodano found himself in a difficult situation with the bases loaded and one out. He balked, scoring the runner at third. Then HBU's Kolby Arnst followed it up with a two-run triple, giving the Huskies an 8-4 lead. Baltodano balked again, scoring Arnst from third. That put the game out of reach for the Panthers. The Panthers surrendered five runs during that long inning.

Prairie View A&M dropped to 11-9 on the season, while HBU improved to 6-14. The Panthers will attempt to bounce back by picking up a few Southwestern Athletic Conference wins against the visiting Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions in a three-game series.

“We're looking forward to Pine Bluff,” Cullivan said. “I wanted the energy that we get in conference play, but I didn't get that today...I told them that this is the last mid-week game I want to see that kind of effort. From now on I want the same intensity from the weekend games to carry over.”

The first pitch will be thrown at noon on Saturday, and the second game of the double-header will start as soon as the game ends. The third game of the series will start at 1p.m. on Sunday at the Panther Field.